[View roast video highlights.] I think it only apt that on the occasion of my 30th Southern California Writers’ Conference *San Diego I should lose my voice. In the screenwriting world we like to explain that, good dialogue is the verbiage you wake up in the morning wishing you’d said[Click For The Rest...]

An unexpected murder of crows boded well for conference weekend, and our plot of writers seized the occasion to shine. From Wes, Chrissie and myself, Rick, Linda and Cricket, to all the workshop leaders, guest speakers, and agents–and most importantly to the conferees themselves, who [Click For The Rest...]

Author of The Dining Car, his sumptuous telling of “a story of service, serendipity, and second chances,” Eric Peterson will round out our 32nd annual San Diego conference schedule. As our Sunday afternoon Special Guest Speaker, Eric will share how he navigated the turbule[Click For The Rest...]

Plot is not story. Even the most skilled application of craft will conceal a weak story for only so long. Story is story. Craft is the toolbox an author turns to to tell a story. Surprisingly, many good writers—craft execution-wise—don’t understand the distinction between the two. In [Click For The Rest...]

Returning for her second appearance as Special Guest Speaker is author and SCWC workshop leader Janis Thomas. In yet another departure from the humorous women’s fiction that she first won over readers and critics alike with, her long-anticipated latest, the hypnotic domestic drama Wha[Click For The Rest...]

Winter is coming! Our extended 32nd annual Presidents’ Day Weekend conference takes place February 16-18, 2018. Offering over five-dozen workshops—including “Rogue” read & critique sessions that often run deep into the balmy wee hours, five months out there’s already plenty to rep[Click For The Rest...]

Was reading a book, a “summer read” many would call it, devoid of epic themes or turgid prose, or need of a thesaurus within reach. Generally a fast, breezy romp, a summer read is a simple story simply told. In this case: Boy meets girl. Girl loves boy. Boy and girl are forced to work[Click For The Rest...]

Right out of the gate we’re thrilled to announce that Jennifer De Chiara Literary’s Damian McNicholl will be joining us in February, not only in his role as a accomplished agent looking to expand his client list, but as a distinguished author himself. Of his latest novel, The Moment o[Click For The Rest...]

Such a great weekend. From Wes, Chrissie and myself to all the staff, volunteers–and especially the conferees–thank you for making SD31 such a memorable affair. First-timers abounded this time around. And the severe storm predicted to last all weekend—50-mile-an-hour susta[Click For The Rest...]

Best-selling author of A Star for Mrs. Blake (Random House), an acclaimed novel chronicling the pilgrimage of five Gold Star Mothers who travel to France in 1931 to visit the graves of their sons, fallen in World War I, April Smith joins us in February with her latest. Publishers Week[Click For The Rest...]